Ex-Pakistan cricket captain Salman Butt demands new spot-fixing trial

LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 03: A television news producer writes the sentences received by Pakistan cricketers and their agent down on a board outside Southwark Crown Court on November 3, 2011 in London, England.

Pakistan’s former cricket captain Salman Butt is to appeal against a minimum five-year playing ban slapped on him by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for spot-fixing, and has called for a new trial in a Pakistani court.

Butt, who was jailed along with two other players for deliberately bowling no-balls in the 2010 Lord’s Test match against England in exchange for cash, was released from prison last week after serving seven months of his two-and-half year jail sentence, and has since returned to Pakistan, according to the BBC.

The deal was concluded between Butt’s agent, Mazhar Majeed, and an undercover journalist for the now-defunct News of the World newspaper as part of an investigation into graft in world cricket, according to the Agence France Presse.

The 27-year-old, who along with bowlers Mohammed Asif and Mohammad Amir received a five-year ban, told a press conference in his home city of Lahore:

"I will be appealing in the international court of sports arbitration in Switzerland to get the remaining years' ban removed. I don’t think I got justice in the trial that sentenced me to a jail term. I want a trial in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, because there was no evidence confirming I did spot fixing,” Reuters news agency reported.